Job 38: 4, 5
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
Reflection
In my mid 30’s (after I had heart failure) I had a spiritual crisis. I began to question everything. I am certain that many people go through a similar season of life. I questioned things I believed since I was a small boy. These doubts in my mind seemed to me at the time an absolute quandary and predicament. Unlike the average person, I was being paid in ministry and was in the middle of planting a church. “How could the Bible be true if….” And “If this is true then how in the world does this make sense?” I am glad, in hindsight, that I went through this difficult and several year process of evaluation of my beliefs. It was helpful to distill what I believe into categories of “beliefs,” “convictions,” I’m not sure about this,” and “this category is not that important.”
One of the things I was concerned with was my lack of trust in God. I did not want to be like Job, questioning God’s motives. I thought about that. Really, I was questioning how I was interpreting things, but I was not really questioning God and his character. I did still believe Him… but not necessarily the teachings of my upbringing. Does that make sense? The fact is, there are things we don’t understand… not clearly anyway. And there is a necessary humility, therefore, when you read God’s Word. We don’t know all the details, but we know God is sovereign and has not made mistakes. God, rightly, asks Job, “were you there when I created the world?” Job certainly must have been taken aback. And this question tends to remind me that I don’t have all the answers and therefore we lack certainty from time to time. But we never lose faith. We never abandon God. We hold firm to him.
Prayer
Our God, help us in our doubts to never leave you! As we reevaluate small beliefs, may we never lose faith in you.
